Planet engulfment in the chemically anomalous HD 129171/HD 129209 pair

Abstract

Binary systems composed of stars with similar parameters should have identical chemical composition. However, many chemically anomalous pairs have been found in the literature, such as the binary HD 129171/HD 129209. It is still unclear whether these anomalies originate from inhomogeneities of protostellar clouds, with important implications for chemical tagging and theories of star formation, or if they are caused by a planet engulfment event suffered by one binary component. In this work, we measure precise differential abundances for the system HD 129171/HD 129209 to explore the planet engulfment hypothesis proposed in the literature. We focus particularly on the Be abundance, showing that this element can serve as a diagnostic of engulfment events for solar-type stars. Atmospheric parameters were determined imposing spectroscopic equilibrium of iron lines. Masses and ages were estimated with the isochronal method. Li, Be, N and O abundances were determined via spectral synthesis. Other elemental abundances (up to Zn) were determined by equivalent width measurements. The spectra adopted in the analysis were gathered using UVES/ESO. We confirm the large difference in [Fe/H] (0.120 $\pm$ 0.004 dex) and A(Li) (-1.00 $\pm$ 0.02 dex) among the members of the pair, and the trend between differential abundances and condensation temperature of the elements. The binary system also shows detectable differences in Be abundances (-0.20 $\pm$ 0.04 dex). The abundance pattern of the pair is reasonably reproduced by an engulfment model of 11.2 M$_\oplus$ of rocky material. The difference in chemical abundances of the HD 129171/HD 129209 pair provides strong evidence in favor of the planet engulfment scenario. In this context, the detection of a Be difference among chemically inhomogeneous binary systems can be used as a diagnostic of rocky material ingestion suffered by a member of the pair.